Canvas: New and Renewed Features Timeline

New Quizzes Migration Required

Improved: Step 4 of 4: Disable New Quiz importing and migration checkboxes, defaulting them to enabled.

Microsoft LTI

Improved: Allows instructors to create, manage, and grade Teams assignments directly. Assignments appear in Assignments or Modules view, and grades automatically sync back to gradebook. Provides access to MS Education tools like Forms, OneNote, Whiteboard, Learning Accelerators, and AI-powered features, streamlining workflows and enhancing collaboration for both instructors and learners.

Captions

New: Captions for all Canvas media can be automatically generated and published, making it easy for educators to provide accessible content for learners in Canvas.

Outcome Results

New: Enable instructors to view outcome results from individual assignments, so that they can better understand how scores contribute to overall mastery.

STEM: Item Types

New: New Item types for improved support of STEM courses.

Rubrics: IgniteAI

New: Enables teachers to generate rubrics based on assignment instructions and customizable criteria.

SpeedGrader: IgniteAI

Improved: Provides AI-generated grading suggestions in SpeedGrader, with score justifications included.

Discussions Check

Improved: Enable instructors to use a third-party app to check Discussion contributions for plagiarism.

New Quizzes: Submission Data

Improved: New Quizzes submissions API will enable instructors and administrators to retrieve student test submission data to enhance reporting and inform learning outcomes.

New Quizzes: Item Banks

Improved: Enables programmatic management of quiz items in Canvas Item Banks, fostering content reusability and large-scale authoring.

Assignments: Peer Review functional changes: Assigning

Improved: Enable instructors to automatically assign peer reviews based on available submissions, so that they can save time and reduce manual management.

Assignments: Peer Review functional changes: Points and Date Settings

Improved: Allow instructors to set points and a separate due date for peer reviews, so that students clearly understand expectations and deadlines.

Learning Mastery Gradebook: Chart layout update

Improved: Update the Learning Mastery Gradebook chart, so that instructors can more clearly and accessibly understand student progress toward outcome mastery.

Learning Mastery Gradebook: Layout improvement for large courses

Improved: Instructors can quickly and consistently access LMGB, even in courses with many students and assignments.

Disable New Quizzes

Improved: Step 3 of 4: Use New Quizzes as the default quizzing engine when creating a quiz. Removes the ability to create classic quizzes.

Differentiation Tags

New: Allows instructors to assign tags to assignments and other course content without collaboration or visibility among tag group members. Allows instructors to provide a more personalized learning experience easier.

Discussion Translation: IgniteAI

New: In enabled courses, students and teachers have the option to translate a discussion which will show both the original and the translated version of replies and discussion topic. Overcoming language barriers: Students from diverse linguistic backgrounds can participate fully, even if they're not fluent in the course's primary language.

New: Discussion Insights page is available on the Discussion page, where instructors can generate an Insights report for the initial posts. These generated evaluations are shown in the Improved SpeedGrader. When grading, instructors can save time by reviewing the evaluation notes instead of reading the entire response.

Assessments: Generate Items from Course Learning Outcomes: IgniteAI

New: Educators can now upload source material (PDF, doc, text) and use an intelligent assistant to generate items aligned with specific learning objectives and standards. Item Authoring Assistance drastically reduces the time and effort instructors spend on assessment creation, a common bottleneck in instructional design. By quickly generating relevant and pedagogically aligned questions from existing course content, it frees up educators to focus on teaching and student engagement.

Portfolios: Alerts

New: Notifications for key portfolio activities for learners and educators. Timely notifications help learners stay on top of portfolio assignments, feedback, and milestones, while enabling educators to efficiently track submissions, provide feedback, and monitor learner engagement. This ensures key actions aren’t missed, and communication flows more smoothly.

Discussion: Pin Entries at Top

Improved: Instructors will have the ability to pin discussion replies, and a new, dedicated space will be displayed to show pinned posts at the top of the discussion topic. Instructors can draw attention to certain replies which are helpful for students and help student engagement.

IgniteAI: Discussion Summarization

Improved: Discussion Summary button is visible for instructors. By selecting the button an AI based summary will be generated. The user can add a custom prompt for the AI to focus on. Instructors can quickly understand how the conversation is going in a Discussion without the need of going through all replies.

Portfolio: Export Data

Improved: Learners can download their entire portfolio for offline access and sharing. All embedded files and media can be packaged into a downloadable ZIP file. Providing export options ensures learners can take their work with them, share it in different contexts, and preserve it for the future.

Portfolios: Showcase Type (Overview)

Improved: Redesigned, modern interface built for ease of use, personalization, and visual polish - making portfolios more intuitive and professional-looking. Learners can independently create and customize Showcase Portfolios without needing an educator or admin setup. Learners can create portfolio-specific evidence (e.g., projects, extracurricular activities, professional experience) directly within their portfolio. Learners can tag evidence with key competencies, helping highlight strengths, and making the portfolio easier to navigate or scan. Learners can pull in previously completed Canvas Assignments, helping showcase real academic work alongside self-created content. Without a self-directed portfolio tool, learners struggle to present their learning journey in a professional, compelling way. This feature gives them complete ownership and creative control, helping them confidently tell their story with evidence that reflects who they are and what they can do.

Portfolios: Showcase - Sharing

Improved: Learners can generate shareable links for full portfolios or individual evidence items. Direct posting to LinkedIn from within the portfolio platform to highlight achievements with one click. Flexible visibility settings that allow learners to control who can access their shared content. Learners today need seamless ways to demonstrate their skills and accomplishments beyond their institutions. By enabling sharing and direct LinkedIn posting, learners gain greater visibility and control over their professional presence. Institutions benefit from increased learner engagement and enhanced reputation as their students showcase validated achievements in wider professional networks.

Portfolios: Evaluation Type (Overview)

Improved: Educators can view all evaluation portfolios in one place, then drill down to individual portfolios and their associated evidence. Within each portfolio, educators can track submission statuses at the evidence level. Educators can provide written feedback on individual pieces of evidence - including projects, extracurricular activities, professional experiences, and assignments (Canvas Assignments are commented on in SpeedGrader). Educators can mark non-assignment evidence as complete or not complete. Revision requests are always linked to educator feedback to support learner improvement. All Canvas Assignments linked to portfolios continue to be graded via SpeedGrader.

Improvements for educators to:

• Efficiently access and evaluate submitted evaluation portfolios
• Monitor learner progress across various types of evidence
• Provide meaningful, item-level feedback
• Support competency-based learning through clear, consistent assessments
• Streamline grading by keeping Canvas Assignments within SpeedGrader

Portfolio: Evaluation Type – Student Completion

Improved: Learners can view and open all assigned evaluation portfolios directly from a new Portfolio app in the main Canvas navigation. Each portfolio includes detailed guidance from educators, including evidence requirements and submission expectations. Learners can add coursework, extracurricular projects, professional experiences, and include images, videos, documents, and more. For group-based evidence, learners can tag teammates from the assigned learner group linked to the associated Canvas course. Learners can add reflective narratives to each evidence item to contextualize their submissions and align them with demonstrated competencies.

This update enables a holistic and learner-friendly portfolio experience, helping students:

• Track what’s expected of them in assigned portfolios
• Submit a wide range of evidence — from coursework to real-world experiences
• Reflect on their development through guided prompts
• Earn recognition for competencies and achievements

Portfolio: Evaluation Type - Assigning

Improved: Educators can choose specific Canvas courses to populate learner groups and relevant assignments that serve as portfolio requirements. The interface enables educators to create a portfolio by building sections with specific evidence of expectations. Educators can define what type of evidence learners need to submit. Educators can associate specific competencies with portfolio evidence. These competencies roll up to the full portfolio and are verified upon completion of all associated evidence. Educators can optionally award a Canvas Credentials badge when learners complete the portfolio.

This update empowers educators to implement scalable, portfolio-based single or multi-course evaluations. It supports deeper insights into learner development by enabling educators to:

• Define structured expectations for portfolio submissions
• Connect evaluation portfolios to Canvas courses and assignments
• Recognize learner accomplishments through badges
• Tag evidence to relevant competencies for outcome-based assessment

New Quizzes: Layout

Improved: New Quizzes content will now be rendered natively within the Canvas environment, supporting the immediate, seamless use of core Canvas features and LTI tools (e.g., ReadAloud, screen readers, translation services) that were previously blocked by the iFrame. This technical upgrade delivers a truly native Canvas experience, making New Quizzes feel integrated and intuitive. Crucially, it unlocks compatibility for essential external tools like read-aloud and translation services, ensuring assessments are fully accessible and equitable for students with diverse learning and language needs (ELL/ELD).

Khanmigo

New: AI-powered tutor and teaching assistant. It helps students practice, get hints, and explore ideas interactively — while giving teachers insights to guide learning.

Discussion Checkpoints

New: Break a discussion into multiple due dates. Students must post or reply by each checkpoint, encouraging ongoing participation instead of last-minute responses. Instructors can grade each checkpoint separately or as part of one overall discussion grade.

Overview (video);

Discussion Enhancements and Multiple Checkpoints

Disc Check FAQs

Differentiation Tags

New: Allows instructors to create custom sets of students within a course. These sets are hidden from students and can be used for various organizational and instructional purposes.

Performance Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader 

New: Provides a new SpeedGrader platform experience with a focus on improved performance for large courses.

SmartEvals LTI

New: Streamlines course evaluations with automated processes, mobile-friendly tools, and AI-powered insights, helping us efficiently gather, manage, and analyze student feedback.